Chinese labour camps are said to be forcing prisoners to farm gold for westerners too lazy to do it themselves, torturing prisoners who do not earn enough, the time spent playing apparently not punishment enough.

The allegations were made by a former prison guard who was jailed and sent to a re-education camp for 3 years as punishment for complaining to the central government about local corruption.

In addition to the usual regime of punishing physical slave labour and communist brainwashing, he reports being forced to farm gold for sale to lazy westerners who cannot stomach the soul-destroying tedium of MMORPG gaming themselves:

“Prison bosses made more money forcing inmates to play games than they do forcing people to do manual labour.

There were 300 prisoners forced to play games. We worked 12-hour shifts in the camp. I heard them say they could earn 5,000-6,000rmb ($800-$900) a day. We didn’t see any of the money. The computers were never turned off.”

He was tortured for not farming enough gold, he says:

“If I couldn’t complete my work quota, they would punish me physically. They would make me stand with my hands raised in the air and after I returned to my dormitory they would beat me with plastic pipes. We kept playing until we could barely see things.”

China, the world’s gold farm, has enacted legislation intended to regulate the trade in virtual currencies, but inexplicably nobody seems to take any notice of them.

As the pay and conditions (for the voluntarily employed at least) are said to be significantly better than slaving away in a mine, farm or factory, and western demand for help in bypassing meaningless timesinks is as strong as ever, it is hard to see the practice ending any time soon – save perhaps by the simple expedient of Blizzard selling gold and items straight to users.

are you trying to sympathize with criminals? criminals deserve it. also this article forgets to mention how japan abuses and kills criminals too, japan has a death penalty and it is widely known criminals are abused.

"...former prison guard who was jailed and sent to a re-education camp for 3 years as punishment for complaining to the central government about local corruption."
Really, you call this person a criminal?

In Japan though, you don't get jailed that easily... Community service and fines are much more common penalty for crimes there. The people getting jailed in Japan are people who have done something big like murder or attempt of it. But yeah, the jails in Japan are pretty bad places but that's what they're meant to be, especially when only the real crooks go there.

In China however you can get jailed just by standing in a wrong place at a wrong time.

I'm not surprise the only one who gets rich is the one in power. Filthy Shit Nation thinking high about themselves while other neighboring country and the low class Chinese see them as Trash. Wish and Pray a Earthquake, Tsunami and Nuclear Leak upon THEM CHINA!

WOW (no pun intended) talk about being productive, now I guess the only thing they have to offer next is a weight loss program for the inmates who are sure to gain weight from all that playing MMORPG, provided they even get fed at all.

But damn, it'd be some kinda sweet punishment if it happened to the prisons here in our country its expensive enough to just play on official servers, let alone play all the time

California should really learn from China.
In a state where billions of dollars (8% of our state's budget) gets thrown down the endless well that is our prisons which are overcrowded and dysfunctional, we could be making a hefty profit out of them...
But wait, making criminals play games is a human rights violation!!!!

Well the idea of them cleaning roads, making license plates and generally doing minor manual labor grants a return, but of course the levels of some criminals make it dangerous to keep them near machinery. Costs of repairing machinery damaged by unruly prisoners in this day and age of political correctness where they can't beat them anymore is probably a bit exorbitant. But one would hope minimum security prisons and juvi prisons would at least put these people to work so they can put back into society, and get some kind of work experience in doing some things for the state.

You clearly haven't played an MMO before. These things are cancerous. They break game economies, make it difficult for entry and fuck the active playerbase that's playing fairly.

I prefer games that has no trading. Less reason for these fucks to be around but then people will still complain for the lack of it. Firefall didn't had trading once, the game functioned properly but fuck did that game went downhill.

In China, you go to jail and is forced to play MMORPG's....If you love grinding games, go commit a crime in China lol.

Nice way to make money for sure. I like my games, but I really do hate 24/7 grind fest of some MMORPG's. Plus all the elitist pricks that think killing the same enemy for days on end hoping for a rare item drop is skill....no-life fools.

What's your country then coward anonymous? I'm from England and I hate this country to hell as is. China definitely has it's problems, but I'm no bloody cherry picking hypocrite like most posters are from this site.

Carry on being ignorant and in denial, fact is most of the profit these gold farmers gain are from us Westerners. Stop pretending that as if "NO ONE" from the West who plays MMORPG's don't use gold farmers...